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There was a press event held today at the Sheikh Saad terminal regarding the new airport design. At the event a CD was given to the attendees which contained various renderings of the airport (previously posted about here) as well as PDF’s containing information on the airport design plus some facts and figures. None of the documents say when the airport will be completed but they do say construction begins next year. Oh and it will have a metro station meaning I will be able to take the train from my home to the airport… that’s if they ever build the metro.

Other interesting facts, the airport will be covered with solar panels as previously speculated and they’re actually aiming to be the first passenger terminal in the world to attain the LEED “gold” accreditation (laymen terms = it will be very environmentally friendly). The steps which in my previous post I thought were weird (check image above) turned out to be water falls which makes a lot more sense. Check out all the renderings below, they’re slightly updated and polished compared to the previous renderings that were posted. Finaly here is a link to a zip file containing the PDF’s in Arabic and English. [PDF LINK]

Thanks Rabee

Not sure what it’s about, I’m guessing they’re firemen since the demonstration was happening right in front of a fire station in Kuwait City.

Update: Arab Times have an article on this protest in today’s paper [Link]

A documentary on Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, the Kuwaiti psychologist who created The 99 comic books is going to premier in the States on PBS next Thursday October 13th. This is the description of the documentary taken from the Wham! Bam! Islam! website:

WHAM! BAM! ISLAM! tells the story of Naif Al-Mutawa and his venture to create the first team of superheroes from the Muslim world called THE 99. Following the tumultuous journey of THE 99 from concept to reality, from acclaim to censure by Islam’s cultural gatekeepers, from the edge of bankruptcy to plans for theme parks and an animation series, Al-Mutawa dodges cultural minefields and tries to tackle the harsh realities of the global marketplace while doggedly pursuing his vision to bring new heroes to Muslim children while re-introducing Islam to the West.

I’m not sure if the documentary will be available to download after the release or if it will even be available as a stream online. Once I find out how we can watch it I’ll update this post with more information. For now, here is the link to the Wham! Bam! Islam! website [Link]

My brother took some very cool shots of the Contemporary Art Platform launch exhibit that was held last week. The exhibit was made up of 100+ photographs, paintings and sculptures which highlighted “Kuwait’s refined aesthetic values and the market trends of the Arab art world”.

You can check out all the pictures he took on his Flickr page [Here]
If you want to find out more about the Contemporary Art Platform click [Here]

Found the above on the K’s PATH Facebook page. Didn’t know Kuwait had such a system before and not sure why they ever stopped it. [Link]

Update: A reader sent me another tag he has dating to 1986. Looks like the quality of the tags dropped a notch.

I’m thinking of getting a small camera and placing it in my car to record everything that happens on the road while I’m driving. There’s a lot of messed up crap that happens on the Gulf Road and I figured I might as well record everything and then later upload them to YouTube.

So far I’ve leaning towards the Veho Muvi MicroDV camera pictured above. It’s tiny, battery lasts around 3 hours, it clips to the rear view mirror and it costs around $50 on Amazon. Seems pretty easy to turn on when I get in the car and to turn off when I get out. My trips around are around 20 minutes long which would mean I would have to charge it every 3 days which isn’t too big a deal.

Has anyone used the Veho cam before? Anyone got any better suggestions?

It’s been nearly 4 months since they shut down Safat Square for renovation. They’re supposed to rebuild the whole square from ground up but it seems progress has stalled or is going extremely slow. Since the closure of the square all they’ve managed to do is remove some of the floor bricks and that’s basically it. They should’ve kept the pathways open at least so that people could continue to use it as an underpass.

Basil Alsalem (the owner of Slider Station) was at Hamra Tower tonight and snapped some shots of the mall from inside. It’s the first time I see shots of the mall from the inside with the lights on so I thought it was interesting to share. He snapped three shots which you could check out [Here]

So far here are the shops and restaurants I know of that are opening up in Hamra Tower:

Hermes
Le Sushi
Melenzane
Cavali Cafe
Gucci Cafe
Chocolate Bar
Elevation Burger
Panerai Boutique
Behbehani Watches
Harry Winston
Gelatissimo
Adidas
Adidas Originals
Reebok

The tower is scheduled to open in December of this year.

Diesel at Marina Mall is closing down since they’re opening up at 360 Mall so they’ve got a major sale going right now. They’ve got 70% off on some jeans and they also have a large collection of jeans for just KD10. The store is pretty empty right now and they only have women’s jeans left so if you’re interested hurry up.

Fahad just posted pictures of Core Fitness on his blog. If you’ve ever been curious to get an inside peek you can check out the pictures [Here]

Note: The picture above is of my kick ass personal trainer Dusty

Alshaya recently stopped cash and credit card refunds in all their stores for returned items. According to the article on Arabian Business, this decision by Alshaya has caused an uproar of a sort with shoppers in the UAE but surprisingly I haven’t heard much about this in Kuwait. I don’t think I’ve ever returned anything back to a store so this won’t have much effect on me but I’m sure it’s going to piss quite a few people off. [Link]

Thanks Fred

According to a reader SNOG is opening up this weekend at Souk Sharq. I’m not a fan of frozen yogurt but supposedly SNOG is good. I believe this will also be their first branch in Kuwait. This is their second branch, the first was in Muhallab.

Thanks Ahmed

I also noticed that Tche Tche is opening up in place of Nandos at The Avenues. Nandos was located outside in the area behind Chili’s but it closed down. Not sure if Tche Tche will manage to send traffic to that isolated area in the back but the weather is getting better now and there’s a pretty large outdoor seating area so they might be able to pull it off.

This is security footage of a fight that took place at Al Adan Hospital earlier in the month. I can’t believe the guy even punches the old woman, it’s completely messed up. Here is a link to even better quality footage than the one above [Link]

Thanks Hashem

Update: Before people start posting hate comments about Kuwait, here is a bigger fight that took place at a hospital in the States. This isn’t a Kuwait only thing.

[YouTube]

According to the Arab Times, 7,543 citations were issued by the surprise General Traffic Department campaign this past week. I was super close to getting a violation myself the other day because of my car tint but I guess my tint wasn’t as bad as others since I was allowed to pass through the checkpoint.

I really think car tints should be legalized or at least light tints where you could still see who’s inside the car. Something dramatic must have happened recently for cops to crackdown down this hard on car tints and I’m curious to know what.

Anyway, these campaigns do benefit everyone and they do make the roads safer but because the campaigns last a week or two it’s a temporary fix and not long term. I’ve recently noticed a lot more people are running red lights and to me those drivers are a lot more dangerous than car tints. But, on the bright side I heard they’re going to be installing a lot more red light cameras so that’s a good thing.

There are a bunch of new shows starting this season and so far from the ones I’ve watched I found Pan Am to be the most interesting. The show is about the airline Pan Am during it’s prime back in the 60’s and it’s starring Christina Ricci as one of the airlines glamorous flight attendants.

To me the show is very similar to Mad Men but instead of it dealing with advertising its about the airline industry and like Mad Men, watching it makes me want to go back in time and live in the 60s.

The other new shows I’ve watched so far and haven’t liked are Person of Interest and Up All Night. If you want to watch Pan Am you can do so directly on the ABC website and for free. Just make sure you’re using a VPN so it thinks you’re living in the US. [Link]